“Multilateralism is in crisis, but we have to find common ground“. If there is any indication of the divisions that characterize this G20 Foreign Ministers Meetingeverything is in the inaugural greeting of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to participants in a video message released Thursday morning. Again, “We shouldn’t let the problems we can’t solve interfere with the problems we can,” Modi said.
A few hours earlier, the US Secretary of State Anton Blinken had announced that he has no plans to meet his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov during these two-day G20 meetings, a crossroads of international diplomacy amid tensions over the war in Ukraine.
And yet the United States believes that the G20 foreign ministers they will condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to a senior official accompanying Blinken. “I think that will be the language of the majority, if not the vast majority, of the G20 who remain opposed to Russia’s war in Ukraine,” the official on board the plane carrying Blinking to New Delhi told reporters .
This was also announced by the head of US diplomacy from Uzbekistan, where he was visiting on Wednesday I have no plans to meet Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang. The meeting of the G20 finance ministers on Saturday made this clear deep differences with Ukraine which had prevented agreement on a joint statement as Moscow and Beijing had refused to validate the paragraphs mentioning this conflict.
Russia: Lavrov will use his participation in the G20 to attack the West
Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov arrived Tuesday night in India, a country that has a longstanding friendship with Russia and has not condemned Ukraine’s invasion. Sergey Lavrov, he says the Russian Foreign Ministry will use its participation in the G20 to attack the West. “The destructive policies of the United States and its allies have already brought the world to the brink of disaster, caused a setback in socio-economic development and seriously worsened the situation of the poorest countries,” the statement said.
A sign of the icy climate that has now emerged between Washington and Moscow: Antony Blinken has not sat in the same room with Sergei Lavrov since the G20 meeting in Bali, Indonesia in July. Their last face-to-face meeting was in January 2022, just weeks before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, 2022. Blinken and Lavrov have since spoken on the phone, but not to discuss the matter.
Meloni in India to strengthen bilateral cooperation
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has also arrived in India to strengthen cooperation with the Asian giant: notably with the signing of an agreement in the defense sector which, according to official sources quoted by The Indu newspaper, “will have a who will allow for other arrangements between the governments of the two countries”.
“During the visit there will be a round table dedicated to business, co-chaired by Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and (Indian) Minister of Industry and Trade Shri Piyush Goyal.” Indeed, Tajani joins Meloni on this trip and will attend the G20 ministerial meeting.
Meloni and Modi already met on November 16 on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali. On this occasion, the Prime Minister of India invited the Prime Minister to India as a guest of honor for the Raisina Dialogue. The visit to India is the first by an Italian leader after that of President Giuseppe Conte in 2018.